Former NFL star Antonio Brown made his first appearance before a Miami-Dade judge on Wednesday, a day after he was brought to South Florida to face an attempted murder charge in connection with a May shooting.
Brown, wearing a red jail outfit during the video hearing, was granted a $25,000 bond along with house arrest with a GPS monitor. He had already surrendered his passport, his attorney said.
Jail records in Essex County, New Jersey, show Brown was released late Tuesday morning for the transfer to Florida. The former All-Pro wide receiver had waived extradition to Florida from New Jersey, where he was brought following his arrest in Dubai.
In court Wednesday, a prosecutor asked the judge to hold Brown without bond, saying he had fled to Dubai and was a flight risk, but Brown’s lawyer, Mark Eiglarsh, said he didn’t flee but has business in Dubai and had gone there before a warrant was issued.
Eiglarsh said he’d been hired to arrange a surrender but before Brown could surrender he was arrested.
Brown, 37, faces a charge of attempted second-degree murder with a firearm. Eiglarsh said in an email Tuesday that he has already filed a written not guilty plea to the charge.
“This case is clearly over charged as an attempted second-degree murder, even the judge says at worst we’re talking about aggravated assault,” Eiglarsh said after Wednesday’s hearing. “Secondly, we have a strong self-defense case, he has a long history with this violent convicted felon who was arrested during the Super Bowl protesting and violently resisted officers and also he has extensive family ties, he has a home here in South Florida where he’ll live.”
As part of his argument for release from jail, Eiglarsh said Brown has seven children and another on the way, and is the sole provider and can’t work from behind bars.
After he bonds out, Brown was expected to go to his home in Broward and won’t be able to leave South Florida without permission from the court.
According to an arrest warrant, Brown is accused of grabbing a handgun from a security staffer after a celebrity boxing match in Miami on May 16 and firing two shots at a man he had gotten into a fistfight with earlier. The victim, Zul-Qarnain Kwame Nantambu, told investigators that one of the bullets grazed his neck.
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Eiglarsh said Brown was simply protecting himself from a person he had problems with before.
“The actions he was forced to take were solely in self-defense against the alleged victim’s violent behavior. Brown was attacked that night and acted within his legal right to protect himself,” Eiglarsh said.
Brown was not immediately arrested that night because initially police did not identify Nantambu as a victim. It wasn’t until May 21 that Nantambu gave a full statement about the incident to police and identified Brown as the shooter, the affidavit says.
“It is very clear that there is a scuffle, whoever caused the scuffle, that’s irrelevant. Mr. Brown then leaves, comes back with a firearm and then starts wildly shooting at my client and by the grace of God he was not killed so it was Mr. Brown’s intention the entire time to kill this man, to kill my client,” said attorney Richard Cooper, who represents Nantambu.
Based on his social media posts, Brown had been living in Dubai for several months. In a social media post after the altercation, Brown said he was defending himself because he was “jumped by multiple individuals who tried to steal my jewelry and cause physical harm to me.”
A second-degree attempted murder charge in Florida carries a maximum 15-year prison sentence and up to a $10,000 fine in the event of a conviction.
Brown, who spent 12 years in the NFL, was an All-Pro wide receiver who last played in 2021 for Tampa Bay but spent most of his career with Pittsburgh. For his career, Brown had 928 receptions for more than 12,000 yards and scored 88 total touchdowns counting returns and one pass. He was a seven-time Pro Bowl selection.
Brown has dealt with several legal problems over the years. He previously had been accused of battery of a moving truck driver, several domestic violence charges, failure to pay child support and other incidents.
During a 2021 game with Tampa Bay against the New York Jets, Brown took off his jersey, shoulder pads and gloves and ran off the field, leading to his release by the Buccaneers and effectively ending his football career.
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